Compal Communications Inc (華寶通訊), a 58 percent owned subsidiary of notebook maker Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦), signed an agreement with Motorola Inc yesterday to jointly develop global packet radio service (GPRS) mobile phones. The company plans to begin shipping the handsets in the fourth quarter of this year.
Mobile handsets made to work with GPRS, or 2.5 generation mobile Internet, can be used at speeds up to 110 kilobits per second (kbps), nearly twice the speed of a desktop computer hooked up to a phone line through a 56k modem.
"We've been approved by Motorola to manufacture GPRS handsets, but we are not disclosing the size of the shipments," said Chang Chih-ming (
Observers wonder if the new deal will really pan out for Compal this year. New orders will depend on whether or not consumers choose to log onto the Internet via their mobile phones. So far, people have avoided such services.
"GPRS handsets are not very popular currently, I think most users are happy with their current [mobile phones]. Also, the GPRS infrastructure isn't ready to launch ... I think we'll have to wait until 2002 for GPRS to become popular," said James Huang (黃建銘), analyst at National Securities Corp (建弘證券).
In Taiwan, local mobile phone service providers, like Taiwan Cellular Corp (
After the poor performance of first generation mobile Internet, WAP, which ran at a clunky 9.6k, many people have crossed high-tech mobile phone products off their wish lists. For this reason, analysts say mobile phone service providers are going to have to work hard to coax users back and get their GPRS "Web without wires" systems going. Only then will the market for GPRS handsets heat up.
"[Mobile phone service providers] have to provide competitive prices in order to attract customers," said Huang, pointing out that in Taiwan, people still prefer to use their phones for talking, and not downloading data.
NEW IDENTITY: Known for its software, India has expanded into hardware, with its semiconductor industry growing from US$38bn in 2023 to US$45bn to US$50bn India on Saturday inaugurated its first semiconductor assembly and test facility, a milestone in the government’s push to reduce dependence on foreign chipmakers and stake a claim in a sector dominated by China. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened US firm Micron Technology Inc’s semiconductor assembly, test and packaging unit in his home state of Gujarat, hailing the “dawn of a new era” for India’s technology ambitions. “When young Indians look back in the future, they will see this decade as the turning point in our tech future,” Modi told the event, which was broadcast on his YouTube channel. The plant would convert
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday said the DRAM supply crunch could extend through 2028, as the artificial intelligence (AI) boom has led the world’s major memory makers to dramatically reduce production of standard DRAM and allocate a significant portion of their capacity for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips. The most severe supply constraints would stretch to the first half of next year due to “very limited” increases in new DRAM capacity worldwide, Nanya Technology president Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) told a news briefing. The company plans to increase monthly 12-inch wafer capacity to 20,000 in the first half of 2028 after a
Property transactions in the nation’s six special municipalities plunged last month, as a lengthy Lunar New Year holiday combined with ongoing credit tightening dampened housing market activity, data compiled by local land administration offices released on Monday showed. The six cities recorded a total of 10,480 property transfers last month, down 42.5 percent from January and marking the second-lowest monthly level on record, the data showed. “The sharp drop largely reflected seasonal factors and tighter credit conditions,” Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) deputy research manager Chen Chin-ping (陳金萍) said. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday fell in February this year, reducing
Zimbabwe’s ban on raw lithium exports is forcing Chinese miners to rethink their strategy, speeding up plans to process the metal locally instead of shipping it to China’s vast rechargeable battery industry. The country is Africa’s largest lithium producer and has one of the world’s largest reserves, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). Zimbabwe already banned the export of lithium ore in 2022 and last year announced it would halt exports of lithium concentrates from January next year. However, on Wednesday it imposed the ban with immediate effect, leaving unclear what the lithium mining sector would do in the
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